News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-05-05
A CITY OF CANAL BOATS.
A COMMUNITY THAT COMES AND
GOES WITH WINTER.
A Green Mountain skipper
Housewives Longing for Spring.
TFrom the Y. Y. Sun,1

miles an hour. The honk of the wilt
goose is heard far to the south when til,
tOwpath mariner haIlls his craft through
the gap into the Morris Canal basin a
Jersey City and begins to make things
snug and tight for tile winter. He find
in that tide basin, where the mud i!
bare twice a day except in the channel
nearly half thousand other boats lying
as close together as sardines in box
and, hauling up alongside the feet, he
makes fast to his neighbor and becomes
part Of the oldest winter city in the
world. If he gets in early and has lucE
he secures the berth at the wharf, an6
the others take their places outside o
his boat as fast as they arrive, and al
are lashed together so as to form solid
mass. AS canal boats are bluff-boweG
and almost square-sterned, there is very
little open space between them, and one
can walk over the whole fleet as easily
as over raft. For greater convenience
and to prevent accidental slipping of g
foot between the sides, planks are laid
from rail to rail and sometimes from
deck to house, and every boats deck is
made thoroughfare for the inhabitants
of the winter city.
Landing at the western end of the
Liberty street ferry and walking up the
railroad track past the dry docks, where
big vessels are being scraped, coppered,
and generally overhauled, one can look
across the narrow-gap channel and see
the great canal fleet as one vast deck
with innumerable cabins and houses
built upon it. Here and there, at low
tide; an isolated hulk lies rotting in the
mud, its broken ribs and shattered
planks telling the story of its departed
usefulness and abandonment to slow
decay. To reach the fleet the
| gap must be crossed, and there
is no bridge. Tie traveller who
passes that way has the choice of
| three methods of getting from one sec
ton of the street to the other. He can
make a detour of a mile. swim across, or
whistle for the ferryman. On the south
ern hand of the gap is a plain board
| shanty and gang plank running down
to a small float stage, that sometimes
| floats and at other times rests in the
mud. Chalked on the end of the shantv,
in rude style, is the legend, "Fair 2
sents. This sign and fat-bottom
punt at the float indicate that the ferry
is maintained here. A whistle brings
out the fe1Tyman, who will scull the
punt across the gap, not disdaining the
assistance of passenger who may feel
inclined to take up the two oars, con
veniontly lashed to the thole-pins, and
pull a few strokes. At the other side, if
the passenger be active and the tide low,
he can grasp hanging chain and scram-
bic up the wharf timbers to q rough
ladder, and so up to the street, and if he
be not agile he may get a boost from the
ferryman.
Access to the canal fleet is had from
the wharves ON that side of the gap, and
from the gang plank to the first boat all
the others may be reached. AS spring
approaches the boatmen begin making
repairs and alterations ON their craft,
and the sound of hammer and saw is
heard from all directions. On board
one of the boats near the wharf a lank,
grizzled skipper is hauling up potatoes
from the hold and selling them to a
peddler whose wagon stands near. There
is little of the sailor in the appearance
of the average tow-path mariner. He
generally looks like a Jersey farmer and
dresses like one. He never blasts his
! eyes, shivers his timbers, or dances q
hornpipe, although he may be able to
! hold his own in splicing the mainbrace,
and he knows more about steering a
mule than about taking his trick at the
| wheel and keeping his weather eye
! pealed. The old fellow standing on the
canal boats deck, selling potatoes by the
| peck, looks more farmer like than the
| average.
"HOwd'y do?" he says in reply to the
salutation. Walk right down that ERE
board and come here if you want to see
a nice lot o'taters. Now look at them
down there. Pooty fair midelin' lot,
winter and gettin' 'em tolably well
son-in-law, and he loaded her up with
| potatoes long the last of the season and
! come down here to sell 'em on his own
| hook. Runs the beat himself, you see,
| and in the summer he buys salt and
loads up and sells it up along. Pays
better than carryin' freight for other
folks, but tain't everybody kin do that.
! My boats the next one. She b'longs to
| the marble company up to Burlington,
and I'm Cap'n of her. This is my fust
winter down here Come down to kinder
! help my son-in-law sell his stuff. Then
you see my health amt fust rate, and l
sorter cal'lated I'd feel better here than
up in Vermont during the cold weather,
but ] dunno. My wife, she don't seem
to like here more'n middlin' well. Got
the whole family here. Live right
aboard the boat jes' same's if We was
ter hum. That's my baby there, that
girl skippin' long over them decks.
Here you. Maria? Stop that running
now. Fust thing you'll tumble down
and get hurt. Curious you can't behave.
Yes, we send her to school all winter; right
up here to Miss Smiths select school.
The teacher up hum was bilin mad cause
we took Maria out and fetched her down
long with us, but | guess she'll have to
git long 'thout her for a spell. You see
we sold out the farm and we've made
up our minds to go on the canal for
good, 50 We all had to come long. It's
pooty s0ciable here in winter These
boats kinder make village all by them
selves, and folks go visitin' same as If
they were ashore. We get sOrter neigh
borIy with some of 'em and some we
don't 'Tain't always agreeable to know
all your neighbers, and some of 'em we
don't wanter know The young folks
manage to have good time right along.
You see the grain boats are housed over
the whole length, and there ain no deck
same us on these boats. The floor OF
the hold is level as a barn floor and fust
rate for dancing. They git feller that
can fiddle pooty well and have dance
once i'll Il while. L guess they enjoy
themselves, though don't tend dances
much myself. I'm gettin' along in years
aud my health sorter spindling; but
ther was Il time when ] could show 'em
how TO do the fancy steps. If you wan
ter see how folk live on a canal boat,
Just come down into the cabin. This is
new boat, and / guess she's got the
best cabin of any boat on the canal. ;"
The cabin of a canal boat is house
III a very small compass. 1t is situated
well aft, and almost the width of the
deck, the house rising about three feet
above deck and leaving narrow pas
sageway on each side. Usually the ca
bin is divided into three compartments
a large living room, a sleeping room,
and a kitchen. Under the deck, on the
port side of the large room, is an extra
berth, and lockers, called closets by the
canal .mon Rre plentiful. AZ these ca.
hias are inhabited and cared for geneg